donta1979

Nope, nvidia cards offer more for workstations over ati cuda/physx tools. 

 
I don't think you really know what you're talking about and none of your comments have been in the spirit of the OP's intentions.
 
CUDA is a computing architecture developed by nVidia for GPGPU. The AMD "equivalent", if you could even call it that, is FireStream, which in the most recent iteration is essentially OpenCL. GPGPU does not hold the same purpose as workstation graphics, not even close. GPGPU is about using graphics processes as a heterogeneous support mechanism to the conventional CPU. I.E. Building a code "kernel" and executing it on the GPU. Workstation graphics excell at rendering -> pushing tons of polygons very quickly to render an image in real time. They are not the same.
 
Supercomputers are designed around collecting many smaller computing "nodes" or units into a conglomerate to solve a larger problem. The simplest reason for why nVidia is dominant in the supercomputing industry is because they were first to market with CUDA, and that counts for a lot. Supercomputers do not handle the same computational tasks as workstations and therefore are a poor example.
 
It's all down to what the OP intends to do with his/her rig. A CAD junkie would definitely be better off with an AMD card at this present time; they offer more performance and more value than anything nVidia currently offers. However, since more and more applications are supporting GPGPU, especially CUDA, that may change. CS5 currently supports GPU acceleration and has been shown to be significantly faster than with a CPU alone. The choice is the OP's, based solely on what they intend to do with their rig; and their definition of "ultimate" is their own, not yours.

I hear ya CaptBill...I think my next build (for Folding) will be a G34 based quad socket platform.  An ~8sec TPF on Bigadvs sounds awfully tasty to me!  I will have to keep my SR-2 as well. 

bigcape
my sr2 is STILL on the coffee table no case.

Good to see that your are still in SR-2-land.  If your SR-2 is running, "Unleash the Kraken" and let that beast come out to play for Chimp Challenge next week.  We need all the Folding help we can get this year and the SR-2 was made for that kind of work. 

Dude, I'm sorry.  nice build and all but the wiring is a mess.  Great hardware but please clean up the rats nest.

Watch out for opening that case back up...might be a few birds that wanted in.  Otherwise that is a beast of a computer.

Very nice, you should look into some sleeved extensions by NZXT, which are pretty cheap but looks really good. (Not as good as MDPC-x sleeving, but good) I think they would help a lot with your cable management. And more pics are needed.  

Nice, you got it together! Like the others stated, spend a little time with those extensions and fix up the wiring a little. on the front you have a button popping out for something or the other. If you don't have a drill to open a hole for that switch, you could probably have mountain mods send you a new cover plate with a hole of the right dimension drilled for you.

That is one slick connection if you can find the uses for it.
 
I am with you on the fan cables, especially if you have a bunch of them in a case.  I have just gotten to the point of soldering them together if possible (PITA if one dies though) and then getting them to a fan controller or hub for power.
 
Also I would do what Gratuitous said with the switch, even if it is not going to be used until you get the LED's.  I would say stick with just LED's, but that is just personal preference.

I like criticism. It helps me improve.
Honestly, I lke the mm WAY more than the tx-10. The mm has wheels and is way more compact. I could put my 480 rad in the top of the case, but still inside it when i sawed off part of a drive bay and removed the motherboard fan. The way you can customize the panels in the mm is incredible!
 
Are there any ways to sell bandwidth / computing power?

texinga

bigcape
my sr2 is STILL on the coffee table no case.

Good to see that your are still in SR-2-land.  If your SR-2 is running, "Unleash the Kraken" and let that beast come out to play for Chimp Challenge next week.  We need all the Folding help we can get this year and the SR-2 was made for that kind of work. 

Thank you texinga I could use your direction and would be happy do join!
Oh yeah she runs! here is how she is configured and how as she sits.
Items in green BOLD are installed
Here is what she runs with and some xtra "in-stock-shelved hardware" if its okay to mention with no "hijack" intended. (please forgive but i thought wasin-line with the topic at hand per se)
SR-2 VERSION A-1
A. 2 Xeon x5560 2.8Ghz CPU's
B. 6x 4GB dims= 24Gb of RAM that I do need a better replacement(suggestions) for current (samsung M393B5170DZ1-CH9 0843) CPU1 wont run unles sonly 2 DIMMs are used per CPU,so only 16gb IN USE slots 0 and 3 per CPU.
C. 20 FUJISTSU LIMITED 2.5 10k 146k SAS's (using only 11)
4 PERC 6/i and E RAIDcontrollers with BBU's with extra 512 memory DIMM (currently using 2 controllers) configured with 4 Logical RAIDs total (1 RAID 6 for operating sys and program installs, 1 RAID 5 for data storage, 1 Hotspare on one controller- 8 SAS's total on 1 controller---1 RAID 0 on Controller #2 with 3 10K 146GB SAS's for temp working data areafor speed that auto backs up to RAID 5)
D. 2 Tesla M2090's GPGPU CARDS being loaned soon!)
E. 2 1200W daisy chained Thermaltake PSU's
F. 2 Frio AIR collers
STOCK PILE (PARTIAL)
(have 3 GForce 4500's, 1 GTX800,  1 FireGL V7600, several 15k Raptors, 6 U320 SKAY's, 1 300GB 15k SAS, 30 or so  NOT in use -and 30+ 750GB-1TB 7200K SATA's  PLUS a whole bunch of non relavent to SR-2 stuff)

bigcape
Thank you texinga I could use your direction and would be happy do join!
Oh yeah she runs! here is how she is configured and how as she sits.

Here's another thread that you may not have seen where we have some information (thanks to Troy8d) about Folding and Chimp Challenge that starts this Thursday.
http://forums.evga.com/tm.aspx?m=988466
 
I'm not sure about the Tesla video cards, but sounds like you will be moving those to other pastures soon anyway.  I mainly use the power of my SR-2 to process CPU-based Folding projects known as SMP Work Units (WUs).  There are basically two classes of those WUs that we process in Folding (standard SMPs and Bigadvs).  All of these WUs are important to the science of curing disease, but the SR-2 really shines on the Bigadvs and they are the most stringent of the WUs.  On my overclocked SR-2, I can finish most Bigadvs in ~29hrs.
 
In the link above, Troy shares various links including an introductory guide to Folding.  Chimp Challenge is where various Teams (worldwide) come together once a year to compete to be the winning Team.  Last year, our team EVGApes won the title and we are working hard to retain it for 2011.  Hope you can make it and if you have further questions, please open up a thread in the Folding Forum.  We have quite a few SR-2, X58, P67 and P55 Folders there who are always ready to help a newcomer.
http://forums.evga.com/tt.aspx?forumid=28

Not really sure why anyone invests in Quadro cards when you can get a 3GB 580GTX.
 
I work in feature film (our studio just finished Tron, more or less as high end as VFX gets) and deal with models that can have upwards of 20,000,000 before they're smoothed. Gaming cards, ESPECIALLY with Maya's new Viewport 2.0, absolutely beat the pants off the Quadros for a fraction the price...unless you feel like spending $5,000 for the Quadro 6000 because you NEED NEED NEED 6GB RAM for a very specific purpose. This isn't just my opinion, our CG supervisor will tell you the same. Lots of our artists freelance from home too and all use GTX cards or Radeon, never even heard from anyone that bought a Quadro for their personal work...and these are guys as talented and knowledgeable as you'll find anywhere.
 
Far as building an SR-2 computer goes, at this stage of the game, I am 100% waiting for Sandy Bridge LGA2011 Xeons to get released. Considering that a single 4 core i7 2600k can be easily OC'd to 5ghz and post numbers not THAT far off a single X5690...I am very hopefuly for what a brand new SB 8 core (or possibly more, the Xeon e7 chips have 10) Xeon can pump out when OC'd.
 
While there may not be SR-2 type boards for LGA 2011 right away, there will certainly be single socket LGA 2011 gaming boards to let you crank that Xeon up while you wait for dual sockets to be released.
 
All of this having been said, the software that I use allows for complete 100% network parallelization. Any money I could waste on an overkill workstation is better spent simply beefing up my render farm more.
 
For the price of a proper SR-2 build (let's say $10k), I could put together 8 i7 2600k machines (9 if I swap to Linux), overclock them to 5ghz and absolutely murder the SR-2 machine with their collective rendering power. For example...
 
CineBench 11.5 CPU rendering (aka the only thing that counts for VFX/CGI) results:
Dual Xeon 5690 @ 4.2ghz = 22 to 23 pts.
OC'd i7 2600k @ 5ghz = 9.5 to 10 pts.
 
So for the same price as one SR-2 machine that has a rendering score of 22.5, I get eight 2600k machines with a collective score of 78.
 
My ePeen might never grow quite as large as you guys with these badass SR-2 rigs, but my rendering power and productivity is completely absurd for the money comparatively. When it comes to workstation builds, that is all that counts in my eyes.
 
That having been said, I understand the appeal. Just my standards at this point are that $1,200 = 9.75 CineBench score (best possible benchmark to estimate how good a workstation is for digital imaging). Once I start spending more, I feel like I'm cheating myself...probably because I am.
 
TL:DR Version:
Skip buying Quadros. Unless you NEED higher than 3GB VRam...but there's a 99.99% likelihood you flat out don't, just hide polygons and optimize your workflow better. ILM was able to make the Star Wards Episode 1, 2, 3 and Weta made Lord of the Rings before anyone had even heard of 1GB VRam, let alone 3 or 6. Here is a review of the highest end GeForce card available in the year 2000 when those movies started production: http://www.anandtech.com/show/567
 
Get 3GB 580GTX cards. Spend the saved money elsewhere. If you need more than that, you either work at Weta Digital (and even they don't throw money away on the high end Quadro's) or aren't working properly.

  Looks like a nice build.
SR-2
2 x e5645 Xeons
2 H60 closed loop water coolers
2 nVidia GTS 450 1 gig cards overclocked
X-fi Titanium Fatal1ty sound
12 gigs 1333 DDR3 XMP ram
4 HP hdmi 22" monitors (love the extra workspace)
Wacom 3 pen tablet